The shortest research paper would be '0' words long!! Yes, it is blank! In 1974, clinical psychologist Dennis Upper found himself stricken with writer's block. Though pen was to paper, no words would flow. He decided to solve his problem with a scientific experiment. Yet, as is frequently the case in science, his experiment didn't work as intended, and that's putting it euphemistically. Despite the failure, his work"The unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of “writer's block,” was published in the prestigious Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis. It is reproduced in its entirety below:
Although these short papers are fun, I think the most interesting papers are those that are both important and concise.This 1966 article is the shortest known paper published in a serious math journal, and it's all of two sentences.
Excellent - you have to praise the authors for originality and the 'audacity' to submit in the first place. You also have to praise (I think) the editors for having a sense of humour. Either that - or they are not very good at their job. I doubt, personally, that you would see this happen today though. If this were possible - I could happily write several hundred publications a year!!
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